Title: (Scattered) Reliquiae
By: Diana Prallon
Gift for: Iamsolostrightnow
Rating: Teen and Up
Word Count/Medium: 7271 words
Warning(s): Setting: The Diamond of the Day, parts I & II. That means: Canon typical violence, Canon Magic Reveal; Hurt/Comfort; Heavy Angst; Emotional Trauma; Dissociation; Canon Compliant/Minor Canon Deviation; Ambiguous/Open Ending; Fix-it (of sorts); Canon Show Dialogue; period-typical attitudes; Mutual unrequited (these idiots); MCD
Creator Notes (Optional): So, I had the pleasure to work through a beautiful prompt: “If it stays, it’s love. If it ends, it’s a love story. And if it never begins, it’s poetry.” In truth, I went through several different pitches in my head before panicking and landing on this one; the prompt basically screams Finale, soooo I just accepted it and went along. And, yeah, all the pain you felt through the finale is here, just made a bit worse, you’re welcome. Sorry, not sorry. Any emotional damages claims should be directed straight to BBC, please and thank you.
Verses in the beginning/end of each section have been hand-translated by me; any mistakes are my own and any weirdness probably comes from, well, poetry. Poetry is weird (but thankfully as we know Arthur loves poetry, as he told Leon).
I made abundant usage of canon-dialogue; you may want to set a bingo with “episodes with absurdly merthur dialogue” and see if you complete a line. May even help with the crying (didn’t for me, but, hey, hope springs eternal, you people may be luckier or more resilient).
Before I finish this (which is far too long), I should thank Roe for beta-ing this for me and putting up with my weirdness and my random linguistics commentary. Any remaining errors are my own because I definitely won't stop fidgeting around a text until it's published. Oops.
Finally, I must thank the mods for this fest for their work and their dedication and their patience with my emails after I’ve been out of the loop for so long. We’re all lucky to have you around. Thank you.
Summary: One word, six letters, your own name. That was all that it took, each time.
AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/83075871/